Intrinsic
by nlizzette7
Summary: "I love you," Tessa breathes, parasol dissolved under a drizzle that is a storm. Her gaze is held on a wet blur of silver hair and haunted eyes. "I love both of you." / Will, Tessa, Jem / OT3, One-Shot


**A/N: **I had always thought of writing a series about Will, Jem, and Tessa attempting to form a romantic little trio, but I decided to dip my toes into that idea with a little one-shot before diving in. This is based entirely off my memory of the series. Do let me know what you think!

* * *

**Intrinsic.**

_Most people are lucky _

_to have even one _

_great love in their life. _

_You have found two._

If Jem is a drizzle, misting at her cheeks, a touch that is a skim, a skim that is a caress, a caress so meticulously pressed into her skin that she will feel it hours later in a hot bath, beautiful and permanent – If that's what Jem is, then Will is a storm that she has been drowning under from the moment he so much as spared a glance at her. Though harsher, though dispassionate and simply passing through to leave a love-shaped scar or two, it always has a habit of coming back. One cannot exist without fading or quickening into the other.

"I love you," Tessa breathes, parasol dissolved under a drizzle that is a storm. Her gaze is held on a wet blur of silver hair and haunted eyes. "I love _both _of you."

It is decided.

The rain feels wonderful either way.

/

It is not easy at first. It's a mess to fit three souls into a world that favors pairs of an average card. They hold closer so that one is never lost in the deck or shuffled away, Will in his madness, Jem in his fragility, Tessa a soft mixture of the two.

That isn't easy either.

"It's only an oddity," Charlotte remarks around the table, all eyes focused on Will's hand inappropriately placed on the thick lace covering Tessa's thigh, Jem's hand so gentlemanly covering her fingers above the cloth tabletop. Henry does not pay a bit of attention to the spectacle, Sophie blanches, then says not a word, and Jessamine alternates between gags and amused laughter.

"I suppose that some oddities are quite marvelous, just in what they are."

They are three.

The world can only try to fathom it.

/

Tessa watches them sometimes, perches in doorways, eyes entranced as Will sits behind Jem, draws runes into his skin, a large hand on the delicate boy's shoulders as the other breathes yin fen into his lungs, as translucent as his paled skin. She finds it hard to breathe in moments like these. The boys – her boys – have both been so beautifully written into her world.

Will is a harsh chord of mismatched notes, Jem is a sonnet so smooth on her tongue.

"Ouch," Jem murmurs lazily, quietly, and Will pulls away, startled, frowning boyishly at the places where he's just touched his parabatai. Tessa startles at the same time, lifts her dress to make a move into the room, until she and Will hear the whispering, undeniable hum of Jem's laughter. "I'm only joking, Will. Don't kill yourself over it."

It's not funny, but it really is, and Will threatens to hit the boy like they wrestled when they were children. "It's my incredible strength and unyielding good looks, is it?" Will smirks, goes back to soothing Jem. "That's why you and Tessa tease me so?"

She can't hold in the giggle that escapes her lips then. Both boys look up, Jem smiling instantly, Will's eyes alight behind the veil of black locks falling into his face. She bites down on her lip and smiles, takes a graceful little hop into the room.

"It seems we have an admirer, Jem."

Jem rolls his eyes, sits back against Will and opens his arms to Tessa. "Don't mock her, William. She doesn't like it."

Will winks at Tessa. "She sort of likes it."

/

Tessa thinks, as she watches them over days and over months, that there truly is a third line to their once-wretched triangle. She and Will are infatuated, she and Jem are enamored, but Will and Jem are also something, which is why their love is unlike those of mortals.

Will steals away the bow to Jem's violin, and the air fizzes, then fades like a light drink when the two begin to jostle. Jem is giving it all his might, and Will is pretending to try, and it ends with a laughter that sounds like a song.

The two are something beyond brotherhood. The two are something else entirely.

The sight brings tears to Tessa's eyes.

/

Will fights with Tessa, Tessa fights with Will, and Jem is passionate in gentler ways, so he only watches as they stir up a whirlwind and leave him behind to sweep it all up and love them better. They're practically screaming inside of The Institute's library, tainting the worn leather covers with their ramblings and nonsense. And Jem sits behind the shelves, resting on a velvet chair, hands on his stomach, tapping a tune, legs propped up onto a matching ottoman. His two flaming brunettes ignore him as they rumble, but he prefers it this way.

"Because you're _insufferable_, Will. You're so insistent on destroying yourself – "

"And _you_," Will scoffs back. "Running along behind me when you know I'd give up everything to protect you."

"Will, don't be this way."

"_You _don't be this way, Tessa."

Will frowns, and Tessa frowns back, accidentally knocks over a book in her anger, then blushes as she picks it up. Once she has, Will knocks it over again, and Tessa smiles, rolls her eyes even though he's already kissing the corner of her lips.

They are children, Jem smiles to himself. And he'll always love them more than anything.

Perhaps that ache is sweeter than dying.

/

Will never believes he deserves this.

Not when they are splayed out in bed, not when moonlight hits the milky bits of Tessa's skin. Her corset is tight on her, and she's a little bit pink when Jem brushes kisses onto her gooseflesh, circles his touch until she is writhing in the most pleasurable discomfort, until her thighs are trembling with the effort of holding her steady.

Will touches her too, makes her look at him, and everything about him is just _harder_, thrusts that shatter Jem's build up, pushes and pulls that make her laugh, then cry because Jem is still teasing behind her.

Will leaves bruises sometimes. Jem kisses them away sometimes.

"I love you." Will groans it when he is sure that neither of them is listening. Jem is too entranced by the music their skin makes, simple brushes, accidental sharps. Tessa is too intoxicated by the experience, by the combination. She pulls at her own brown curls, Will pulls at them too, until Jem makes them both stop.

Hands held and hearts guarded, the three fall together.

/

"Play me my song," she whispers to Jem. His skin stretches over his bones, and his shirt is unbuttoned, sleeves flowering around his thin arms. Will lies beside them, on his stomach, kisses her knee, sheets slipping away from his waist. As Jem rolls to get his violin, she whispers to Will, "Read to me, Will." She's such a romantic, and the boys exchange a glance, their adoration overwhelming. Tessa clasps her hands together, enrobed in white sheets, wild curls against her cheeks. "It'll be beautiful."

Jem plays.

Will reads.

It _is _beautiful.

/

It turns out that the world turns three ways, and love is just the same.

It turns out that they are fragile, that their time is fleeting, that their love is an entity of its own – and they will always a little bit drunk from it. Will needs them both, Jem cherishes them both, and Tessa –

"I love you both," she repeats under a storm that is a hurricane.

The world can only try to fathom it.

fin.


End file.
